After staying with my host family in Nagoya, it was time to continue the journey.
You might be looking at the map for this post and wondering why it appears that I walked backward at one point.
After leaving my host family’s house, they dropped me off at the local train station. The plan was to take a short train ride and meet up with a friend from a language exchange app. She was a school teacher in her 40s, and we decided to grab lunch together before I continued on my way.
We ate at Saizeriya, which was a first for me. If you’ve never heard of it, it’s basically Japan’s answer to “How cheap can we make restaurant food without it being terrible?” Honestly, I was impressed. The food wasn’t amazing, but it was surprisingly decent considering the prices.
After lunch, she recommended a local festival in her hometown and offered to drive me there. It turned out to be a Kabuki festival. There were traditional floats, performances by children dressed as much older characters, and food stalls.
After watching a performance and wandering through the festival grounds, we said our goodbyes and she dropped me off at the station.
That’s when things went completely off the rails.
I received a message from my accommodation for the night, informing me that they could no longer host me due to an illness in the household.
Normally that wouldn’t be a huge problem.
This was the second-to-last day of Golden Week.
For those unfamiliar, Golden Week is one of the busiest travel periods in Japan. Hotels fill up, trains fill up, and apparently every available sleeping arrangement in the country disappears.
I checked internet cafes. Full.
I called hotels. Full.
I searched Airbnb and every booking app I had installed. Nothing.
Well, technically there were options. They just cost enough money to make me consider sleeping on a park bench. If there was a park bench available. lol.
Instead, I decided to wing it.
I sat inside a coffee shop at the train station and started messaging people. Maybe somebody wanted to hang out. Maybe somebody knew of a place to stay. Maybe I’d accidentally solve the problem through sheer optimism.
One person replied and invited me to an izakaya. We had a nice conversation over food and drinks, but after about an hour it was time to part ways. Nice break from the drama. Still homeless.
As the evening got later, I considered taking a train to another city and searching there, but every option I found was booked. Eventually I got on a train and just did loop, mostly because it was warm and everything around me had closed for the night.
Then, out of nowhere, a friend in Nagoya messaged me.
“You can crash at my place.”
Problem solved.
At that point, paying for a train ride all the way back to Nagoya sounded infinitely better than sleeping outside or paying for a hotel that cost more than my daily budget.
One thing I’ve learned repeatedly on this trip is that carrying a lightweight tent and sleeping bag would have given me so much more freedom. In a country as safe and beautiful as Japan, being able to camp occasionally would have saved me a lot of money and stress.
So after making it all the way to Nagahama…
I went all the way back to Nagoya.
I spent the night on my friend’s couch and resumed my journey the next morning.
Unfortunately, I forgot about one important detail.
I still had to get back to Nagahama.
Another long and kind of pricey train ride.
By the time I finally returned and started walking again, I was already behind schedule. At least I got to test out my new sun-protection sleeves and face covering.
Because of the previous day’s chaos, I never actually checked how far I needed to walk.
All I knew was that I had a hotel reservation waiting for me in Tsuruga.
The distance?
43 kilometers.
Roughly 10 to 11 hours of walking.
I spent the entire day moving forward, watching the sun slowly disappear.
I have to say I love walking in tunnels now. Watching all the peoples faces as they pass me is priceless. They all look so surprised to see someone walking in the middle of nowhere, especially a foreigner.
Eventually it became clear that I wasn’t going to make it in time.
I hate using transportation (that goes forward) on a walking journey, but I couldn’t afford to lose my hotel reservation during Golden Week.
Defeated, I had to take a train.
There was just one problem.
My SUICA card was still locked up because of the incomplete trip through the mountain station earlier. Normally I would have just bought a ticket, but this tiny station didn’t have any staff or ticket machines.
So, with no other option available, I boarded the train for free.
Before anyone accuses me of becoming a criminal mastermind, don’t worry—I fully intended to explain the situation and pay the fare as soon as I reached a staffed station. Still, it felt strange getting on a train without paying first. Every stop I half expected an employee to appear out of nowhere and demand answers.
I eventually reached Tsuruga station, explained my last trip and paid the fare. I also paid the difference from my SUICA trip earlier, which fixed it.
Crisis averted.
To make matters even more ridiculous, I arrived at Tsuruga Station so close to check-in time that I had to take a taxi to the hotel.
The bright side?
I made it.
And I managed to grab McDonald’s before they closed.
Small victories.
The next morning I somehow made the exact same mistake.
I woke up, looked at my route, and thought, “Yeah, that seems manageable.”
It was not manageable.
The plan was a 39-kilometer day that involved crossing a mountain pass.
The good news is I never actually had to cross the mountain.
The bad news is that’s because I got escorted away after about an hour.
Apparently the road I was following kept bringing me dangerously close to train tracks. A man in a yellow safety jacket stopped me and began yelling at me.
Unfortunately, I had absolutely no idea what he was saying.
Thankfully, a local woman happened to be nearby and stepped in.
Long story short, I wasn’t supposed to be there.
The woman ended up driving me to a nearby station and suggested I simply take the train through part of the mountain pass before continuing my walk.
At that point I was grateful for any solution that didn’t involve accidentally getting arrested or fined.
So I followed her advice.
The tiny station where I got off looked like something out of an anime movie. Mountainside, river, and rice fields. There wasn’t even a way to close out my SUICA card again. No ticket machine. No staff. It’s okay I have done this before.
I took a picture of the station, made a mental note to explain the situation later at a station with workers, and started walking again.
Then I encountered a much bigger problem.
Hunger.
In my infinite wisdom, I had skipped breakfast.
An hour later, I was regretting every life decision that had led me to that moment.
There were no restaurants. No convenience stores. Just a river.
I started thinking about all those people who tell you to always carry emergency food and water while hiking.
Maybe they had a point.
Then, through a hedge across a river, I saw movement.
At first I thought it was a construction machine.
Then I got closer.
It was a dinosaur.
An animatronic long-neck dinosaur.
Standing in the middle of nowhere.
Yeah, lemme say that again. a DINOSAUR.
Then I turned around.
And that’s when I discovered the greatest sight I had seen all day.
A scenic roadside rest stop.
There was a souvenir shop.
There was a convenience store.
Most importantly, there was a food court.
My starvation had been saved by an animatronic dinosaur.
I ordered a chicken katsu bowl, bought a giant bottle of water, and rewarded myself with ice cream afterward. Then I sat next to the dinosaur for a while, admiring the magnificent creature that had unknowingly guided me to food.
To this day, it remains one of my most memorable moments. Saved by a dinosaur.
The next few days continued the pattern of long walks, business hotels, and questionable planning.
One day involved trudging through exhausting heat before rewarding myself with tsukemen, cold noodles dipped into a rich sauce.
Another day involved waking up early with an exciting plan to attend boat races in Mikuni.
That plan fell apart spectacularly.
I took a bus to the coast and even treated myself to a fancy Italian lunch since I was ahead of schedule. Salad, pizza, and cheesecake.
Feeling great, I walked to the boat racing venue.
The parking lot was empty.
I checked online.
I asked ChatGPT repeatedly.
According to ChatGPT, races were absolutely happening.
I walked around.
Nothing.
Finally I found an employee and asked.
No races.
Not today. Not this week. Not even close.
The next races wouldn’t happen for several more weeks.
At that moment I learned an important lesson:
ChatGPT is fantastic for overthinking life problems.
It is significantly less reliable when determining whether there are actual boats racing in front of you.
Frustrated, I decided to visit a scenic cliff instead.
Naturally, I boarded the wrong bus and accidentally returned to where I started that morning. To be fair the difference was the bus stop on the right side went to the cliff and the bus stop on the left side went back. I just chose incorrectly.
Then it began raining. Like how did this day go so wrong.
At that point I officially gave up.
Things somehow got even stranger that evening.
After arriving in Kaga soaking wet, I discovered there were almost no affordable accommodations available. I searched everything and came up empty.
Then someone I had met through social media messaged me and offered a place to stay.
Perfect.
Or so I thought.
To make a long story short, I ended up staying at the home of a recently divorced woman who was still in the process of moving in. There were boxes everywhere, two dogs running around, and paper towels covering spots where the dogs had apparently had accidents.
Still, she was incredibly kind and generous for letting me stay.
The room was cold, the sheets seemed dusty, and I wasn’t entirely sure what I had gotten myself into, but I slept nonetheless.
The next morning she even drove me to Natadera Temple and paid for my admission.
Whatever concerns I had about the accommodations disappeared after that. Her kindness meant far more than the condition of the house.
After leaving, I continued toward Komatsu where I met another language exchange friend for lunch. We grabbed cheap Chinese food, wandered around town, and eventually she convinced me to visit yet another festival.
This one was much larger than the previous Kabuki festival but same premise.
She took a train.
I walked an hour and a half.
We arrived at exactly the same place. Different time.
The festival was packed with food stalls, games, toys, and thousands of people. I even met two traveling missionaries, which was an unexpected but interesting conversation.
I went to a mall and got an OVERPRICED steak sandwich that was delicious. Then I stayed in an internet cafe that wasn’t Kaikatsu Club, which meant I had to survive an entirely new registration process full of forms, translations, and enough kanji to make my brain hurt.
The booth was longer than usual, but showers and towels cost extra.
You win some, you lose some.
After nearly a week of walking 30 to 40 kilometers every day, I finally admitted that I needed a break.
I made my way to Hakusan and stayed at a place called The Yard.
Imagine a parking lot full of shipping containers that have been converted into tiny hotel rooms.
That is literally what it was. Such a creative idea.
The room was clean, comfortable, affordable, and exactly what I needed.
I stayed for three nights.
I’d love to tell you those three days were full of adventure, but the reality is much less exciting.
Day one: Sushi with a friend.
Day two: Lying down.
Day three: More lying down.
After weeks of walking, my body had officially demanded rest.
Eventually, rested and ready to continue, I left Hakusan and walked into Kanazawa, the city that would become my home for the next week.
And that’s where I’ll end this chapter.
The next blog post will cover my adventures in Kanazawa and the tragic tale of the Ishikawa Peninsula.
Until then, I’ve been posting short stories, photos, and videos from the trip on Instagram and Facebook.
If you’d like to follow along, you can find me at @nomadokai.